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Sunday, May 20, 2012

POSTSCRIPT: Sea Dogs 3, Knights 5

A collection of recaps from last night’s 5-3 Saint John
Sea Dogs loss to the London Knights…

Our recap. The Sea Dogs were undisciplined and
unorganized in a 5-3 loss to the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights.
The defending Memorial Cup champions scored first but would never lead again in
the contest as the Knights shut down the Sea Dogs’ offense for the most part.

The London Free Press’ recap. “Of course it's
frustrating,” Huberdeau, the Sea Dogs captain and Florida Panthers first-round
draft pick, said. “We lost. I was undisciplined and you can't take penalties
like that. I apologized but it doesn't make a difference. It's disappointing.”

The Edmonton Journal’s recap. “We’re a better team than
that,” said Saint John forward Zack Phillips. “We had patches that we played
well, but we’ve got to put it together a lot better than that.”

Buzzing The Net’s recap. The final unravelling for Saint
John came with 2:04 left and London up 4-3. Captain Jonathan Huberdeau, who had
been stymied aside from his bad-bounce short-handed goal late in the second,
blew his stack after stripped of the puck inside the Knights blueline by Ryan
Rupert, part of the Knights' Sandpaper Squared act.

NHL.com’s recap. "I thought we didn't turn many
pucks over in the neutral zone and got pucks deep, which kept their speed
down," London coach Mark Hunter said. "I thought we cycled well and
took advantage of our chances."

Sportsnet.ca’s recap. "Just mentally, I don't think
we were mentally there tonight," Coyle said. "You can't afford to
have one bad period in this tournament. It will cost you and that's what it did
to us."

MISSING IN ACTION: Healthy scratches for Saint John were forwards
Devon Oliver-Dares, Grant West, Oliver Cooper, Dylan McGuigan, defenseman Jordan
Moore, and goaltender Richard Tingley. The Sea Dogs dressed the same lineup as
they did for Game 4 of the President’s Cup final.

ELBOW: Just 16 seconds in, Jonathan Huberdeau found
himself in some hot water once again. In almost the same place as he hit
Charles Hudon in the semifinals, he hit Matt Rupert with an elbow to the head and
received just two minutes for his actions. Video and other stuff can be found in a post here.

Huberdeau was suspended for two games for his hit on
Hudon. If he is suspended, it would be a massive loss in a short tournament
like this.

SCORING FIRST: Last night’s game was just the fourth time
this season that the Sea Dogs have lost a game when scoring first. They went
35-3-0-0 when scoring first in the regular season and 13-0 in the playoffs.

TRAILING: The Sea Dogs trailed 2-1 after one. They had a
record of 7-6-1-2 when trailing after one in the regular season and playoffs
combined. They trailed 3-2 after two. They had a record of 2-11-0-0 when trailing
after two in the playoffs and regular season combined.

TOO MANY PENALTIES: Fortunately for Saint John, London’s
power play was awful because the Sea Dogs gave them plenty of man advantage opportunities.
The Knights had eight power plays and were only able to score on a
five-on-three man advantage late in the third.

EVEN STRENGTH: Saint John had no luck scoring at even
strength. Two of their three goals came while shorthanded and the other came on
a power play.

HUBERDEAU: Speaking of Huberdeau, he had a rough game
despite scoring a goal. He picked up six penalty minutes, including a double
minor for roughing with 2:04 left in the game and the Dogs down by a goal.

"It was frustration. I shouldn't do that,"
Huberdeau said of his late penalty. "We had a chance to come back and I
took the penalty. It was undisciplined. Now we have to forget about it. We
can't panic now. We have to think about the next game and work on what we
didn't do well."

Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant also picked up a bench
minor on that call.

NO SHOW: Fairly uneventful game for the likes of Charlie
Coyle, Stanislav Galiev, Zack Phillips, and Danick Gauthier. They need to be
firing on all cylinders if the Dogs are going to beat a team like London.

LOSS: This was just Saint John’s second loss ever at the
Memorial Cup. This was also the Sea Dogs’ first ever loss to an OHL team after
going 3-0 against the league at last year’s event.

HOT: The ice was terrible and, according to Sportsnet,
the dressing rooms are incredibly warm. Shawinigan has had a year to prepare
for this thing. Did they not expect these kind of temperatues?

HIGHLIGHTS: Via Sportsnet.

Open Ice Hockey’s recap.

NOTES: Jonathan Huberdeau had a team high five shots…
Charlie Coyle and Danick Gauthier had four hits… no Saint John player had a
plus rating… Vladislav Namestnikov had a Knights high four shots… Seth
Griffith, Tyler Ferry, Austin Watson all had two assists… Saint John outhit
London 22-13 and outshot them 25-24… Dale Hunter got more screen time than Mark
Hunter… Jonathan Langille was one of the referees… Sea Dogs went 1/5 on the
power play… Mathieu Corbeil has yet to win a game at the Memorial Cup in two
tries.

OTHER STUFF

Listening to Sportsnet talk about the Ruperts may be more
annoying than listening to Sportsnet talk about the Saulniers.

A few people on Twitter said a lot of Shawinigan fans
were supporting Saint John which is a little surprising.

Some newspaper guy from Edmonton blamed Saint John’s loss
on goaltending. Get real.

Must win game on Monday.

TONIGHT: London faces Shawinigan at 8pm.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Edmonton Oil Kings on
Monday night at 8pm.